Primary Brain Cultures Research Articles

A study of irrigation fluids for neurosurgery on brain primary cell cultures.

Primary cell cultures from newborn rat brain hemispheres were exposed to different irrigation fluids used in neurosurgery. The cells died after incubation for 5 min with hydrogen peroxide, and the number of cells was drastically decreased after 10 sec of incubation. They shrank after incubation in Elliott's artificial cerebrospinal fluid for 3 h, but the viability as determined by trypan blue exclusion test was not affected. Physiological sodium chloride, Ringer's solution and the culture medium 199 with Hank's salt had no noticeable effect on the viability or morphology of the cells.

Effects of ion channel toxins and specific neurotoxins on the cyclic nucleotide content of cerebellar slices, primary brain cultures and neural cell lines

cAMP and cGMP were measured in mouse cerebellar slices, neural cell lines and primary nerve cell cultures from rats after treatment with different neurotoxins and high potassium.

Normal and benzo(a)pyrene-transformed fetal mouse brain cell. I. Tumorigenicity and immunochemical detection of glial fibrillary acidic protein.

Primary cultures of whole brain and cortex cells origination from 14-day-old A/Jax or C3H mouse fetuses were treated with benzo(a)pyrene (B(a)P) for 24 h. After 7 to 8 passages a malignant transformation was observed in the chemically treated whole brain and cortex cultures. Control cultures of cortex remained non-transplantable during the whole experiment (up to 14 passages) whereas in the control cultures originating from whole brain a spontaneous transformation appeared after 11 passages. With horseradish peroxidase-labelled antibody, the specific glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) was detected in both control and transformed total brain and cortex cultures, and in the tumors initiated by the in vitro transformed cells. This finding shows that glialike cells persisted after a long in vitro maintanance and transformation.

Brain development influences the appearance of glial factor-like activity in rat brain primary cultures.

THE development of the nervous system in mammals is thought to be a complex process which involves the orderly expression of a pattern of signals and events. The understanding of how development is controlled requires the identification of the biochemical events which are causally related to this process. Established cultured cell lines provide useful model systems which have yet to be validated by careful examination in conditions more closely related to those in vivo. We have shown previously that established glial cell lines release a macromolecular factor(s) which can induce morphological differentiation of neuroblastoma cells1 and this glial factor(s) is distinct from the well characterised nerve growth factor2. Here we report that glial factor (GF) activity is not confined to established cell lines, as a similar activity is also detected in the medium conditioned by certain primary cultures of rat brain. We further demonstrate that there is a correlation between the presence of GF activity in the medium from cultures of various brain regions and the age of the animal at the autopsy from which the primary culture was derived. Our results provide experimental evidence that primary cultures initiated at different developmental stages can parallel the cellular and biochemical development of the brain in vivo.

Selection of differentiated neurons in embryonic mouse brain cultures using arabinofuranosylcytosine

Treatment of primary mouse embryonic brain cultures with arabinofuranosylcytosine (AraC) results in selective survival of differentiated neurons. These neurons are nonreplicating and are electrically active. Selection of neurons with AraC is superior to that with fluorodeoxyuridine and provides neuron-enriched cultures suitable for a variety of studies of neuron function in vitro.

Proliferation and Ultimate Division in Primary Brain Cultures – A Quantitative Radio-Autographic Study

Proliferation and Ultimate Division in Primary Brain Cultures – A Quantitative Radio-Autographic Study

Lysolecithin fusion of cells from multiple sclerosis patients with Vero cells.

Investigations were performed on cell cultures derived from patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) in order to trace a possible virus infection as a cause of the disease. Cell cultures were established from one brain autopsy specimen and four lymph node biopsies from MS patients. Lymphocytes from 28 MS patients and six healthy controls were used for fusion or cocultivation experiments, either immediately after isolation or after mixed lymphocyte cultures (MLC). Lysolecithin fusion and cocultivation experiments were made with Vero cells and with, respectively: cultured brain cells, lymph node cells and lymphocytes from MS patients. Electron microscopical examination revealed intranuclear filamentous structures in 5 per cent of the cells in primary cultures of MS brain and lymph node and in control skin organ cultures. Multinucleated cells were found in six out of 19 cocultures of Vero cells and MS lymphocytes preincubated for 2 days at 37 degrees C. The cultures were tested for the presence of viruses, i.e. measles virus and virus producing hemadsorption with human type O and/or guinea pig erythrocytes and virus against which the MS patients showed serum FA-antibodies. No virus antigen could be demonstrated in the cells.

Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE) agent in hamsters: III. Induction of defective measles infection in hamster brain

A hamster-adapted SSPE agent was shown to cause a productive infection in weanling hamster brain which changed to a cell-associated or defective infection coincident with the appearance of measles antibodies in serum. Antibodies to measles hemagglutinin, hemolysin and nucleocapsid antigens developed in serum which also contained neutralizing activity for regular measles virus. The agent recovered from brains prior to the appearance of serum antibodies was infectious in cell free media, capable of rapidly destroying Vero cell cultures and able to progressively destroy primary hamster brain cultures. In contrast, the agent recovered from brain after serum antibodies were present was infectious only within cells, destroyed Vero cells ineffectively and spread slowly through primary brain tissue cultures releasing minute amounts of extracellular virus intermittently even though no measles antibodies were present in the culture media. Nevertheless, infected giant cells in the primary brain cultures contained both the HA and HL measles antigens in their cytoplasmic membranes. This in vivo conversion of a productive to a cell-associated cerebral infection appeared to be caused by the host antibody response and may mirror the initial events of human SSPE and possibly other slow or latent measles infections of the CNS.

Papovavirus of JC type in progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy. Rapid identification and subsequent isolation.

A papovavirus of the JC type was identified in the brain of a patient dying of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) complicating chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Rapid antigenic typing of the virus was carried out by fluorescent antibody staining of the brain and by electron microscopic agglutination of virus particles extracted directly from the brain. Subsequently, the virus was isolated from brain tissue in primary cell cultures of human fetal brain. This second association of JC virus with PML confirms that at least two antigenically distinct viruses may cause PML and demonstrates that methods are now available for the rapid identification of the papovaviruses that may be related to the disease.

Vitamin D-induced calcium-binding protein: comparative aspects in kidney and intestine

Vitamin D-induced calcium-binding protein: comparative aspects in kidney and intestine

Isolation of foamy virus types 1 and 2 from primary rhesus monkey brain cultures.

SummaryThe isolation and serologic identification by cross-neutralization tests showed the presence of both simian foamy virus types 1 and 2 in primary rhesus monkey brain cell cultures.